City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It didn’t even take Koby Thomas the length of his first official visit to know he’d found his future school.

The Imhotep Charter (Pa.) wing went out to Robert Morris University last weekend with his family -- and before he even made the trip back to the eastern portion of the state, he was hooked.

He made his decision public today, announcing he’ll be playing for head coach Andy Toole and the Colonials next fall.

“They’re the best fit for me, the coaching staff, I feel comfortable with them,” he said. “I like the plan Coach Toole has for me, just loved the school, loved the atmosphere.

“I really didn’t go in knowing that I was going to commit afterwards, but the first day when I went in on the visit, I just knew I was going to commit,” he continued. “[I] loved everything up there, loved everything about it. Just couldn’t wait to get home, talk to my family about it and do it.”

Thomas had a terrific summer playing with K-Low Elite on the Adidas Gauntlet, averaging nearly 13 ppg during circuit play, along with 4.4 rebounds and a steal per game as well.

His high-level athleticism on the wing, combined with an ever-increasing ability to score the ball off the bounce, led to a significant uptick in his recruitment: numerous Atlantic 10 schools and other strong mid-majors were among the 15-plus Division I programs to offer, and schools like VCU, Iona, Missouri State and Quinnipiac were amongst his other choices.

“It was surreal, just to take it in, I just went out there playing basketball,” he said. “I was really shocked, and when I saw my potential, just kept working on my game, kept improving, kept waiting for better things and more blessings to happen."

His AAU coach, Kyle Sample, credited Thomas' maturity as the main reason he was able to have such a big summer.

"I think the decision that he made today shows his maturity," Sample said. "He talked about wanting to go somewhere where he was comfortable and familiar with the coaching staff, and he just wanted to go somewhere where he could have a chance to play right away and get better."

As a sophomore, Thomas helped Mastery Charter North into the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AA state tournament, making a name for himself on a big stage for the first time. As a junior, he landed at city powerhouse Imhotep Charter, playing alongside high-major target Daron Russell and the rest of the talented Panthers for head coach Andre Noble.

It was at Imhotep that Thomas really came into his own as an explosive two-way wing, giving Russell a big alley-oop target in transition who could also clean up the glass and defend almost every position on the other end of the court.

“I credit that a lot,” he said. “If I would have never gone to Imhotep, I don’t think I would ever be where I am now.”

At Robert Morris -- located in Moon Township, Pa. -- he’ll be playing for Toole, the former Penn guard who’s now going into his seventh year as head coach of the Colonials. Toole, who led RMU to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15, has a 120-87 (.580) record in his first head coaching gig, winning 20-plus games each year from 2011-15 before an uncharacteristic 10-22 season a year ago.

Thomas gave a lot of credit to the entire staff, particularly Germantown Academy grad Kyle Griffin, who Toole hired in June after Griffin spent the previous three years as an assistant coach at Lehigh.

“Kyle Griffin is my guy, he’s been with me all summer -- talking to me, calling me, checking up on me,” he said. “And that stood out for me, all the coaches hit me up every day, on my birthday, they all told me happy birthday, they just showed me mad love and they had a real good plan for me.”